Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-12-10
Christmas on "Old Windy"
BY CHARLES EeBERr cRADDocK.

his great rcd disc above the sombre
woods and snow-crowned crags of the
opposite ridge, when Dick Herne, his
rifle in his hand, stepped out of his
fathers log-cabin, perched high among
the precipices of Old Windy Mountain.
He waited motionless for moment, and
all the family trooped to the door to as
sist at the time-honored ceremony of
firing salute TO the day.
Suddenly the whole landscape catches
rosy glow, Dick whips up his rifle, a
jet of flame darts swiftly out, sharp re-
port rings all around the world, and the
sun goes grandly up-whiIe the little
tow headed mountaineers hurrah shrilly
for "Chris'musm
As he legan to re load his gun the
small boys clustered around him, their
hands in the pockets of their baggy
jeans trousers, their heads inquiringly
askew.
They air a-goin' ter hev pea fowel
fur dinner down yander ter Birk's Mill, ."
Dick remarked
The smallest boy smacked his lips
not that he knew how pea-fowel tastes,
but he imagined unutterable things.
"Somehows hate fur We ter go ter
eat at Birk's Mill-they air sech set o.
drinkin' men down thar ter Malviny's
house." said Dicks mother, as she stood
in the doorway, and looked anxiously at
him.
For his elder sister was Birk's wife.
and to this great feast he was invited as
a representative of the family, his father
being disabled by ''rheumatics, !" and his
mother kept at home by the necessity of
providing dinner for those four small
boys.
''Hain't l done promised We not ter
tech drap O. liquor this Chris mus day9'
asked Dick.
THAT'S a fac, his mother admitted.
''But boys. an men folks ginerally, air
scandalous easy ter break promise whar
whisky is in it,"
''lll hev We ter know that when ] gin
my word I keeps i" cried Dick, pride
fully.
He little dreamed how that promise
was to he assailed before the sun went
down.
He was a tall, sinewy boy, deft of foot
as all these mountaineers are, and sew
en-mile walk in the snow 10 Birk's Mill
he considered mere trife. He tramped
along cheerily enough through the silent
solitudes Of the dense forest. Only at
long intervals the stiffness was broken
by the cracking of bough under the
weight of snow, or the whistling of a
gust of wind through the narrow valley
far below.
All at once-it was terrible shock of
surprise-he was sinking, Was there
nothing beneath him but the vague
depths of air to the base of the mountain 2
lie realized with quiver of dismay that
he had mistaken a huge drift-tilled fis-
sure, between a iutting crag and the wall
of the ridge, for the solid, Snow covered
ground. lie tossed his arms about
wildly in his effort to grasp something
finn. The motion only dislodged the
drift. He felt that it was falling. and he
was gong down-dOwn- down with it.
He saw the trees on the summit of Old
Windy disappear. He caught one
glimpse of the neighboring ridges.
Then he was blinded and enveIoped in
this cruel whiteness. One last thought OF
the ''poa-fowGl. and he seemed TO slide
swiftly away from the world with the
snow.
lie was unconscious probably only for
few minutes. When he came to him
self he found that he was lying, half
submerged in the great drift, on the
slope of the mountain, and the dark
icicle-begirt cliff lowered high above.
He stretched his limbs-no bones broken
He could hardly believe that he had
fallen unhurt from those heights. lie
did not appreciate how gradually the
snow had slid down. Being so densely
packed, too, it had buoyed him up. and
kept him from dashing against the sharp
| Jagged edges of the rock. He had los
Consciousness in the ar when the moving
mass was abruptly arrested by knoll Of
earth. He was still little dizzy and
faint, but otherwise uuinjured.
Now great perplexity took hold on
him. How was he TO make his way
back up the mountain he asked himself,
as he looked at the inaccessible cliffs
looming high into the air. All the
world around him was Unfamiliar Ever
his wide wanderings had never brought
him into this vast, snowy, tr .ckl,s.
wilderness, that stretched out on every
side. He would be half the day in find.
ing the valley road that led TO Birk',
Mill. He rose to his feet aud gazed
about him in painful indecision. The
next moment thrill shot through him,
TO which he was unaccustomed. He had
never before shaken except with the
/ co.d-but this was fear.
For he heard voicesl Not from the
cliffs above, but from below. Not from
the dense growth OF young pines on the
slope Of the mountain, but from the
depths Of the esrth beneath. lie stood
motionless, listening iniently, his eyes
/ disiended, and his heart beating fast
All silence Not even the wind stirred